Cipollini onion crosses cultures

IN SEASON: This small, sweet onion adapts well to roasted or braised dishes

Martha Holmberg/The OregonianUnlike larger onions that tend to fall apart when cut and cooked, sweet and mild cipollini hold it together

By PETE PETERSEN
Special to The Oregonian

Although the name conjures images of Italian food, cipollini onions are at home in a world of cuisines. The small, sweet, disc-shaped onions that arrive in late summer and fall adapt well to all recipes that require roasted or braised onions. You can use cipollini as a pickled condiment, braised in stews, or roasted and glazed with balsamic vinegar.

Occasionally, you might find that a recipe calls for Borettana onions -- that's essentially cipollini. The two varieties have a related lineage.

Cipollini have a sweet zing without acrid or bitter overtones. Conversations with local shippers in Ontario, which is among several communities to bill itself as "The Onion Capital of the World," confirm that the "sweetness" of an onion has zero relationship to its sugar content. It's the presence of pyruvic acid that determines the mildness or sharpness of taste. The more pyruvic acid, the sharper the flavor. Cipollini have more of the acid than the Walla Walla but, nonetheless, are on the low end of the scale.

Look for: The red and yellow disc-shaped onions are typically small, with the size ranging from 1 to 4 inches in diameter and weighing 1 to 3 ounces each. The skin tint may vary dramatically from light to dark within the color range. The thin skin adheres tightly to the raw flesh much the same way as on a shallot or pearl onion, but more so. There is very little waste from a cipollini.

The skin should be clear of cuts or abrasions, as the onion deteriorates quickly if its flesh is exposed to air. Expect the best fruit to be firm. Any incidence of decay will begin at the stem end and is evidenced by softening and dark tones.

Visible green sprouts at the stem indicate age in the cippolini. The sprout is OK if it's just a nub, but more than a half-inch in length means a pungent flavor lurks inside. As long as the onion is firm, most bitterness will abate with cooking. If soft, the internal flesh is beginning to deteriorate, and I'd choose a different onion.

When: September through December in many markets, with imported crops available throughout the year.

To store: Keep the onions away from natural and artificial lights in a cool dry location with good air circulation. Cold storage temperature (in the 40s) inhibits sprouts.

Basic preparation: The easiest way to remove the skins is by blanching. Bring a 2-quart saucepan filled with water to a low boil. Place the onions in the water and let them sit about 90 seconds. Pour the contents of the pot into a colander (or scoop the onions out with a slotted spoon if you need to blanch more onions). Let them drain and cool for 3 minutes.

On a cutting board, slice off just the root end to break the skin without cutting into the flesh. Gently twist and pinch the loosened skin from the bulb and tear it away from the flesh. Depending on how close to the root end you sliced, the top layer of flesh may come off, too. The remainder of the bulb will be intact, and they're quite cute in a pixie kind of way. If you decide to halve the bulb, cut it lengthwise, then saute, bake, braise or steam according to your recipe.